A cross-modal investigation into the relationships between bistable perception and a global temporal mechanism

When the two eyes are presented with sufficiently different images, Binocular Rivalry (BR) occurs. BR is a form of bistable perception involving stochastic alternations in awareness between distinct images shown to each eye. It has been suggested that the dynamics of BR are due to the activity of a central temporal process and are linked to involuntary mechanisms of selective attention (aka exogenous attention). To test these ideas, stimuli designed to evoke exogenous attention and central temporal processes were employed during BR observation. These stimuli included auditory and visual looming motion and streams of transient events of varied temporal rate and pattern. Although these stimuli exerted a strong impact over some aspects of BR, they were unable to override its characteristic stochastic pattern of alternations completely. It is concluded that BR is subject to distributed influences, but ultimately, is achieved in neural processing areas specific to the binocular conflict

Models Of Faith And Learning In Theatre At Colleges And Universities Affiliated With Churches Of Christ: Selected Case Studies

The Churches of Christ, a body of Christian believers descending from the nineteenth century American Restoration Movement, have a well-documented history of establishing and supporting liberal arts colleges and universities. This study of theatre programs at three of these institutions--Lipscomb University, Pepperdine University, and York College--examines the model of faith and learning operating at each school and in its respective theatre department. This study utilizes a mixed-methods approach combining a multiple case study with a self-administered Likert-scale questionnaire, illuminating the ways that the schools describe their model of faith and learning, the ways that the theatre departments at the schools interpret this model, and the ways that a cross-section of the members of these schools understands this model, along with their corresponding expectations of their school\u27s theatre program. Robert Benne\u27s definition of Christian higher education according to three components--vision, ethos, and Christian persons--provides the theoretical framework guiding this study. Accordingly, an add-on model features academic studies alongside of Christian ethos and persons, whereas an integrated model features some measurable degree of integration in the classroom between the worlds of faith and academics. Statistical evaluations of the survey data are reported according to an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Correlation Coefficients. Survey data are then compared, using Benne\u27s categories, to the case study findings. Based on results of this study, recommendations are offered to teachers and directors in theatre programs at any faith-based institution of higher learning

Accretion characteristics in intermediate polars

This thesis concerns the class of interacting binaries known as intermediate polars (IPs). These are semi-detached magnetic cataclysmic variable systems in which a red dwarf secondary transfers material via Roche lobe overflow onto a white dwarf (WD). The magnetic field of the white dwarf (~ 106 to 107Gauss) plays an important part in determining the type of accretion flow from the secondary. In chapter 1 I discuss binary systems in general, moving on to a more in depth look at Intermediate polars (IPs), their geometry and characteristics, ending with a brief look at all known IPs to date. In the first part of the thesis I present an analysis of the X-ray lightcurves in 16 IPs in order to examine the possible cause of the orbital modulation. I show that X-ray orbital modulation is widespread amongst IPs, but not ubiquitous. The orbital modulation is most likely due to photoelectric absorption in material at the edge of the accretion disk. Assuming a random distribution of inclination angles, the fact that such a modulation is seen in seven systems out of sixteen studied (plus two eclipsing systems) implies that modulations are visible at inclination angles in excess of 60°. It is also apparent that these modulations can appear and disappear on timescales of ~years or months in an individual system, which may be evidence for precessing, tilted accretion disks. In the second half of the thesis I use a particle hydro dynamical code known as HyDisc, to investigate the accretion flows in IPs, as a function of parameter space for two dipole models. One where we assume that the density and size scale of the blobs being accreted are constant which we refer to as the n6 model, and the other where the size scale and density of the accreted blobs are not constant refered to as the n3 model. I show that the accretion flow can take the form of an accretion disk, accretion stream, propeller accretion and ring accretion for the n3 model and stream and disk accretion in the n6 model, depending on the magnetic field strength, orbital period and spin period of the system. violate some of the assumptions of Doppler tomography, such as motion parallel to the orbital plane due to the accretion curtains and that accretion flow is constant throughout the orbital period, making the analysis more complex and the interpretations of observational tomograms flawed as they are based on false assumptions. We have therefore generated simulated tomograms from the simulated accretion flows so we can compare them with real tomograms from observed data and begin to interpret them better. In this way we can discover the nature of the accretion flows in real systems. We show that some of the tomogram features that are produced are in good agreement with those of published observations, but there are also a number of new features which arise corresponding to each of the accretion mechanisms of disks, streams, propellers, weak propellers and ring systems

Teacher agency : curriculum development in English primary academies

Ed.D ThesisThe genesis of this study was the confluence of the Academies Act (2010), which legislated academy status and disapplied the statutory nature of the National Curriculum (DfE, 2013), and the finding that primary schools’ curriculum capacity was a cause for concern (Alexander, 2010). This concurrence seemed to make apparent a serious gap between intentions of teacher autonomy conveyed through policy (DfE, 2010; DfE, 2016a) and the capacity for teacher agency. This was compounded by a context of teachers’ professional environments characterised by long-standing statutory (Education Act, 1988) and non-statutory curriculum guidance (DfEE, 1998; DfEE, 1999) and stringent accountability measures (Hammersley-Fletcher and Strain, 2011; Ball, 2003; Ball, 2016). My own professional experience of primary schools and university initial teacher education departments reinforced this concern, which was heightened by its context of curriculum as the pre-eminent element of education (Young, 2014). The focus of the study is the achievement of teacher agency, regarding curriculum development specifically. It draws upon the ecological approach to teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta and Robinson, 2013) in order to explore the causal influence of the interplay of personal capacity and ecological conditions. Twenty-two primary academy teachers, across six primary academies, participated. A critical realist approach governs the study, thus the search for causal mechanisms considers structures at the real ontological level and the manner in which they are actualised by conditions. The methodology aligns with this philosophical paradigm and through a case study design, a deep understanding of participants’ realities is facilitated. This interpretivist, qualitative approach means theorised trends are strongly rooted in the data. Ultimately, the study’s key finding is that teachers’ personal capacity is the defining factor for their achievement of agency due to the way in which it affects their perception of their working environment. The study also posits that it is key professional learning experiences which are a principal influence upon teachers’ personal capacity to achieve agency. This develops the existing ecological approach to teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta and Robinson, 2013) by adding detail regarding the nature and impact of important past experiences. Recommendations regarding teachers’ professional learning experiences are made

What Others Think: The Importance of Outsiders to Pauline Communities

Despite the negative depiction that ‘outsiders’ are often given throughout the Pauline corpus, there is a remarkable concern for what they think of the believers. This concern is woven through these letters with a gravity that demands acknowledgement in order to understand what inspires and provokes instructions on how believers should behave among unbelievers. This thesis reveals in the Pauline corpus a critical sensitivity to the presence and opinion of outsiders, and it explores the pragmatic and theological impact of outsiders upon believers. The thesis firstly considers Social Identity Theory (SIT), specifically its analysis of boundary-making between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ and the importance of difference between groups. SIT is then critically employed to explore instructions for believers to love outsiders, to walk honourably among them and do good to them (1 Thess 3:12; 4:11–12; 5:15), and for believers to transform public opinion so that it leads to praise rather than persecution (Rom 12–13). Attention then turns to how believers are to lay aside their own preferences for the benefit of outsiders (1 Cor 7; 10; 14), and to the importance of reputation (1 Tim and Titus). The thesis concludes that what others think influences how each faith community responds to their neighbours so as to protect, develop or grow their community, and how believers understand their identity and discipleship. It concludes that similarity between believers and outsiders is important, for it is in the public revealing of shared values that positive intergroup relations can be nurtured in order to harvest positive outsider opinion, leading to hope for fruitful mission. The role of SIT is therefore heuristic for it offers the tools to examine boundaries, but its bias towards difference means it fails to notice sufficiently the importance of similarity and the significance of the outsider to the Pauline communities

Teacher agency : curriculum development in English primary academies

PhD ThesisThe genesis of this study was the confluence of the Academies Act (2010), which legislated academy status and disapplied the statutory nature of the National Curriculum (DfE, 2013), and the finding that primary schools’ curriculum capacity was a cause for concern (Alexander, 2010). This concurrence seemed to make apparent a serious gap between intentions of teacher autonomy conveyed through policy (DfE, 2010; DfE, 2016a) and the capacity for teacher agency. This was compounded by a context of teachers’ professional environments characterised by long-standing statutory (Education Act, 1988) and non-statutory curriculum guidance (DfEE, 1998; DfEE, 1999) and stringent accountability measures (Hammersley-Fletcher and Strain, 2011; Ball, 2003; Ball, 2016). My own professional experience of primary schools and university initial teacher education departments reinforced this concern, which was heightened by its context of curriculum as the pre-eminent element of education (Young, 2014). The focus of the study is the achievement of teacher agency, regarding curriculum development specifically. It draws upon the ecological approach to teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta and Robinson, 2013) in order to explore the causal influence of the interplay of personal capacity and ecological conditions. Twenty-two primary academy teachers, across six primary academies, participated. A critical realist approach governs the study, thus the search for causal mechanisms considers structures at the real ontological level and the manner in which they are actualised by conditions. The methodology aligns with this philosophical paradigm and through a case study design, a deep understanding of participants’ realities is facilitated. This interpretivist, qualitative approach means theorised trends are strongly rooted in the data. Ultimately, the study’s key finding is that teachers’ personal capacity is the defining factor for their achievement of agency due to the way in which it affects their perception of their working environment. The study also posits that it is key professional learning experiences which are a principal influence upon teachers’ personal capacity to achieve agency. This develops the existing ecological approach to teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta and Robinson, 2013) by adding detail regarding the nature and impact of important past experiences. Recommendations regarding teachers’ professional learning experiences are made

Extension as a Delivery System for Prevention Programming: Capacity, Barriers, and Opportunities

Implementation of programs that have demonstrated effects on risk and protective factors offers the best chance for documenting long-term program impacts and, in turn, for obtaining sustained funding. Our study explored the capacity of Extension to serve as a delivery system for best practice programs. In a statewide survey of Family Living and 4-H personnel, we assessed perceptions about such programs and Extension\u27s role in delivering them. Results indicate that Extension has significant strengths as a delivery system for best practice programs. Capacity will be enhanced by reducing the perceived dichotomy between prevention programming and traditional Extension programming

The ‘strength of weak ties’ among female baboons : fitness-related benefits of social bonds

Thanks to Cape Nature Conservation for permission to work at De Hoop, and to all the graduate students and field assistants who contributed to our long-term data-base. LB was supported by NSERC Canada Research Chair and Discovery Programs; SPH was supported by the NRF (South Africa) and NSERC Discovery Grants during the writing of this manuscript. We are grateful to one anonymous reviewer and, in particular, Lauren Brent for invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of our manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin